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Kind: captions
Language: en

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Faith: We're at Schweitzer Natural Area along

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Johnson Creek. An area that's been

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recently rehabilitated upstream, but

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downstream we're looking at some of the

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old urban channel that shows both

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effects of agriculture and urbanization

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over time. I have with me Gardner and

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Janine here. And Gardner, you're

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familiar with the area. What's been

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some of the history on the watershed as

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far as the development over time?

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Gardner: Well, Johnson Creek watershed

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upstream at this point is fairly highly

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developed, both in urbanization as well

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as agricultural impacts. A lot of the

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areas along the stream historically

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would have been cedar forest with a lot

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of interconnected wetlands that were

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connected to the channel that provided

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all sorts of complex fish habitat.

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Agriculture and urbanization have been

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the primary impacts here, as well as

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timber harvest very early on. And those

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impacts have resulted in lots of

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changes to the stream channel in this

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area. Once of the most fundamental

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changes in this area was confinement of

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the channel into a straightened and

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hardened channel, and this was done in

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the '30's by the Works Progress

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Administration, WPA.

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And, you can see that here there's a

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grouted stone bank, trapezoidal

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channel, very straight, very

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simplified. The wood's been pulled out,

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the habitat has been severely degraded

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for aquatic species like salmon which

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we had in large numbers historically,

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but in very few numbers relatively now.

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So, there's been some large impacts.

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Faith: So, we have some changes in the

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watershed and then also, some changes

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of remediate effects in the channel

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itself. Janine, what's changed about

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the sediment characteristics as well in this watershed?

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Janine: Well, it's very common in

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urbanized watersheds to see a change in

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the sediment, the type of sediment in

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the stream. And, in Johnson Creek in

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particular, we've seen a decrease in

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the coarse sediment, the gravels and

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the cobbles, the bigger material, which

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creates the habitat, physical habitat

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for the fish. And, we've seen an

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increase in the fine sediment, so the

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silts and the clays, which end up as

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more turbid, kind of muddy water coming

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through during storm events.

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Faith: So, basically, we have a very

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mature, somewhat mature forest behind

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us. It looks very beautiful. But yet,

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you know, we have the stream channel

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that's been disconnected from its

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floodplain, as well as the changes

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within the channel itself with the

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habitat, as well as the watershed

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changes in hydrology and sediment. So,

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a lot of things are going on here.

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